He looked quite good in the Expendables. His face is sharpened with age.

?Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely
in an attractive and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand,
strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and
screaming?.. WOO HOO?. What a RIDE!?

A rough Texan drawl would probably be the closest accent as it was originally written, what with REH's penchant for narrating as he typed!

Any ideas as to what the Cimmerian's "barbarous accent" would be are pure speculation, but we can have some informed choices. Since the Irish & Scots are descendants of pure-blooded Cimmerians according to Howard, an Irish or Scottish accent might close to a Cimmerian accent. The American accents, being influenced by Irish & Scottish, could be close too. Of course, even those accents have changed and evolved over the centuries, so there's no real answer.

Rather than a Texas drawl, how about an Appalacian accent? Those are hill people, directly descended from Scot and Irish immigrants. And it would leave all the UK accents free for use by Aquilonian characters.

Maybe use a Texas drawl for Gundermen.

I've recently been re-reading The Hour Of The Dragon and it says that Conan had an Aquilonian accent at that time. Which is interesting.

A rough Texan drawl would probably be the closest accent as it was originally written, what with REH's penchant for narrating as he typed!

Any ideas as to what the Cimmerian's "barbarous accent" would be are pure speculation, but we can have some informed choices. Since the Irish & Scots are descendants of pure-blooded Cimmerians according to Howard, an Irish or Scottish accent might close to a Cimmerian accent. The American accents, being influenced by Irish & Scottish, could be close too. Of course, even those accents have changed and evolved over the centuries, so there's no real answer.

Rather than a Texas drawl, how about an Appalacian accent? Those are hill people, directly descended from Scot and Irish immigrants. And it would leave all the UK accents free for use by Aquilonian characters.

Maybe use a Texas drawl for Gundermen.

I've recently been re-reading The Hour Of The Dragon and it says that Conan had an Aquilonian accent at that time. Which is interesting.

Actually I don't find this strange. There are people from all over the world, with all kind of native birth languages, who speak English with a British accent.

"Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with muscles like rotten string? Hell! Break the neck of a wild Cimmerian bull before you call yourself strong. I did that, before I was a full-grown man...!" - Conan, in "Shadows in Zamboula", by Robert E. Howard"... you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?""I was," grunted [Conan]. "I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires." - "Beyond the Black River", by Robert E. Howard

You know that didn't actually occur to me. Although in Hour of The Dragon he's speaking to Nemedians. So one would assume he is speaking Nemedian with an Aquilonian accent. As opposed to speaking Aquilonian in an Aquilonian accent which would be obvious, well not obvious to me until just now lol.

You know that didn't actually occur to me. Although in Hour of The Dragon he's speaking to Nemedians. So one would assume he is speaking Nemedian with an Aquilonian accent. As opposed to speaking Aquilonian in an Aquilonian accent which would be obvious, well not obvious to me until just now lol.

I think that he learned Aquilonian first as a youth with Aquilonia bordering Cimmeria and having direct contact with Aquilonians at Venarium and other times.

?...but there?s strength in union ? that?s what the Aquilonian renegades used to tell us Cimmerians when they came into the hills to raise an army to invade their own country. But we fight by clans and tribes.? ?Red Nails

As Kortoso has said many times and I believe as well Aquilonian and Nemedian must be very similar to each other and when he learned Nemedian prior to The God in the Bowl he started speaking it with an accent from the Aquilonian that he already knew.

If life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. Queen of the Black Coast 1934 Robert E. Howard

Hello all,
I saw an old "Cheyenne" with Clint Walker recently in which he was forced to work. It showed him without a shirt working, sweaty, etc.. And on his fanbased website it showed pics of him working out, which he did regularly, his height and build, etc. So, with everyone wondering what Conan looked like, built like, talked like, I picture Clint Walker as the perfect Conan, both in build, face, and voice. And since Cimmeria on Howard's map overlays Scotland in the west and Denmark and part of Norway in the west, then he might have had an accent with maybe a mixture of Nordic and Celtic accent. Just food for thought!
Freebooter

What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die dogs--I was a man before I was a king!
---From The Road of Kings

Whenever I read a conan novel, for some reason I always hear his voice sounding like the actor that did the voice-over for Steve reeves in the Hercules and Hercules unchained movies from the sixties. That voice over actor had a very booming voice and was an English accent but very deep. My father says that the voice over actor was an actor that appeared in the series time tunnel, but i've not been able to find any links. I'm interested to know if anybody feels the same way.

What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die dogs--I was a man before I was a king!
---From The Road of Kings

Since we're only talking voice, I have a suggestion that will astound and outrage you: Peter Dinklage, with either a gaelic or American accent.

"Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with muscles like rotten string? Hell! Break the neck of a wild Cimmerian bull before you call yourself strong. I did that, before I was a full-grown man...!" - Conan, in "Shadows in Zamboula", by Robert E. Howard"... you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?""I was," grunted [Conan]. "I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires." - "Beyond the Black River", by Robert E. Howard

This was inspired by my reading an old thread about how the name Conan is pronounced (compare to Duncan, Conner, very similar names; there's no way a person from a Celtic language group could possibly say it 'Ko-Nan') but got me thinking about something else:

I still can't quite imagine how Conan himself speaks. I have a 'Conan-voice' in my head, of course, deep and gruff as befits a drinking and fighting man; but in terms of his actual comparative accent in the world of Hyboria (as opposed to the poetical English tales that naturally use our own diction and styles). A Texan with a Scotch accent and a voice as deep as James Earl Jones defies my brain's ability to recreate. Anyone have any actors out there who sound like Conan or have an accent that might reflect proto-Gael?